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- Fossil CO2 Emissions (2016) 35,753 megatons globally - so gold mining is 0.2% of global CO2 emissions!? - Bitcoin mining energy use is at least 78TWh annual

by tome 6y ago

- Fossil CO2 Emissions (2016) 35,753 megatons globally - so gold mining is 0.2% of global CO2 emissions!? - Bitcoin mining energy use is at least 78TWh annually - 480-500g of carbon dioxide produced for every kWh consumed - So mining bitcoin produces 40 megatons of CO2 per year, which is the same order of magnitude of gold mining. - And mining bitcoin is 0.1% of global CO2 emissions (I would be grateful if someone would check my calculation) References: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/10/bitcoin-rise-could-leave-carbon-footprint-size-london https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/10/bitcoin-r... https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/ https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/

saalweachter 6y ago
Bringing this around to carbon taxes, a $20 / ton carbon tax would raise the cost of producing gold by about $16 / troy ounce, and the cost of electricity by around 1 cents / kWh. Googling says it's currently about 700 kWh / BTC transaction, which would create a "carbon surcharge" of about $7 / transaction.
saalweachter 6y ago
> so gold mining is 0.2% of global CO2 emissions!? Looks like iron & steel is 7.2%. Non-ferrous metals are listed at 0.7%, so gold is ~1/3 of the CO2 of non-ferrous metal production. Paper ("and pulp") is 0.6%. https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector
- beiller 6y ago
  Wow so all that junk mail I get in the mail every day is dwarfing the co2 emissions of Bitcoin?
  - saalweachter 6y ago
    I wouldn't say dwarfed but the answer looks to be ... maybe? 5.8 million tons of junk mail each year in the US. Mass of CO2 to mass of paper looks to be 10.5x for new paper and 3x for recycled, so depending on whether junk mail is primarily recycled or new, that is somewhere between 17 and 60 megatons of CO2 / year.

by tome 6y ago

saalweachter 6y ago

Bringing this around to carbon taxes, a $20 / ton carbon tax would raise the cost of producing gold by about $16 / troy ounce, and the cost of electricity by around 1 cents / kWh. Googling says it's currently about 700 kWh / BTC transaction, which would create a "carbon surcharge" of about $7 / transaction.

saalweachter 6y ago

> so gold mining is 0.2% of global CO2 emissions!? Looks like iron & steel is 7.2%. Non-ferrous metals are listed at 0.7%, so gold is ~1/3 of the CO2 of non-ferrous metal production. Paper ("and pulp") is 0.6%. https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

beiller 6y ago
Wow so all that junk mail I get in the mail every day is dwarfing the co2 emissions of Bitcoin?
- saalweachter 6y ago
  I wouldn't say dwarfed but the answer looks to be ... maybe? 5.8 million tons of junk mail each year in the US. Mass of CO2 to mass of paper looks to be 10.5x for new paper and 3x for recycled, so depending on whether junk mail is primarily recycled or new, that is somewhere between 17 and 60 megatons of CO2 / year.